Snowball Melting
by Dualism
Summary: Once upon a time, a boy named Riku tumbled into Sora's apartment through a conveniently placed bedroom window. And Sora was much displeased. [RS] [For FruchiSeka]


**Disclaimer:** A purely hypothetical question here: if one were to cosplay as Riku, pasty white hair and all, could one then keep Sora to cuddle with forever?  
**Actual Disclaimer:** KH isn't mine.  
**Dedication: **To Ms. FruchiSeka, who writes some of the most interesting Riku/Sora dynamics I've had the privilege of reading. I hope you enjoy!

**Snowball Melting**

It was the sort of day you see sometimes in movies - the kind with a hot sun melting the last vestiges of snow upon the ground, plucky blades of grass peeking out from under their cover, and the first flowers of spring casting tremulous color upon the disappearing white.

It was the sort of day Sora had always enjoyed as a kid, the sort of day that made him want to run outside and grab the last bits of snow in a bundle and toss them at windows until their owners leaned out, cursing or laughing or gathering snow from their windowsills and hurling it back at him. In fact…if he could just grab a pair of gloves from his closet, maybe…

Sora's nose twitched. He froze, pinched it, squeezed his eyes shut, and tilted his head back. He would not sneeze, he would not-

"Achoo!"

Sora groaned and fell back onto his bed. This fucking sucked. And when one Sora Strife began expressing himself in expletives, you could be pretty sure that he wasn't exaggerating. He groaned nasally and curled himself tighter under the covers, tilting his head to the side to glare at his room.

It looked like a pigsty. The floor was covered in balled tissues, a giant tub of Vaseline was lying upended near his overflowing trashcan, and a gazillion plushies were scattered over the floorboards, courtesy of redheaded best friend who thought they looked nice.

He pulled the bedspread over his head. He felt like shit, his room was in shambles, and he couldn't muster up the energy to close the window. And all this because he had the mother of all colds, and everyone was too busy to come by with a bottle of Tylenol.

I'm not asking for too much, he sighed internally. Some cold medicine. An extra blanket. A can of chicken noodle. And a group of best friends who love me enough to give that to me.

"Achoo!"

Sora huffed in frustration and plopped the pillow over his bright, beautiful sun outside was already beginning to slip past the roofs of the large skyscrapers and apartment complexes of Hollow Bastion, elongating the shadows along the wall. Sora sighed and closed his eyes. It was just a stupid cold. He'd be better in a few days, and then he'd hunt down his poor excuses for best friends, tie them to the train tracks, sit back, and laugh.

Holding these precious thoughts close to his heart, he let his eyes drift slowly shut, and fell asleep.

At least, that's what he would have liked to have done. He'd barely managed to squeeze his eyelids together when someone tumbled through his apartment window and landed flat on their ass in the middle of Sora's tissue-covered floor.

Sora shrieked.

"What the hell?" he cried, rolling off the bed in a panic. The figure on his floor shot to his feet and took a menacing step forward, holding a threatening fist outwards towards the smaller brunet boy, the upper portion of his face shadowed by a black hoodie of some sort. Sora yelped, grabbed his tissue box, and flung it straight into the face of the masked intruder.

"Whoa," he shouted, grabbing a handful of rolled tissues and chucking them at the tall figure on the opposite side of the room. "Get out!"

The man held up his hands, flinching away. "Stop that," he yelled, ducking when a lamp came flying his way. "Shit, shit, please calm down?"

A cell phone narrowly missed the man's face, shattering as it hit the wall directly behind him. "I said calm down!" he yelled, taking another step forward. A copy of Merlin's New Collegiate Dictionary flew by. "I'm sorry! Please stop throwing things!"

Sora's 42-inch plasma TV came hurtling his way, shaving off a single strand of white hair. The man's barely-visible right eye twitched.

Sora had only enough time to yell a final, mucus-garbled 'Get out!' before the tall, scary-looking trespasser took a running leap forward, bowling into the smaller boy and sending them both crashing to the floor.

"Please stop shouting," the man said, looking an interesting mix of guilty and upset. He shrugged off his hood, revealing white hair and annoyed green eyes. "I'm not going to murder you, I just want you to stop trying to kill me and tell me which floor I'm on."

Sora blinked once, staring up at captor in consternation. He frowned, considered, and then opened his mouth to speak.

"Police!"

The silver-haired man groaned and clamped a single hand over Sora's mouth. "Dammit," he groaned, sitting up. "I knew I should have asked Leon for proper directions. 'Climb up the east side fire escape,' he says. 'You can't possibly get lost,' he says. What an asshole."

Sora's eyebrows lowered and he nudged his face up, pushing gently against the large hand covering his mouth. The man frowned.

"You're not going to yell?" he asked. "Because I realize that this is probably upsetting for you, but I'd rather not be arrested for a mistake."

Sora aimed a look that was half-glower, half expectance. The tall not-a-murderer hesitated, then withdrew his hand. Sora stretched his jaw muscles, twisting under the man still crouching over him. "Not going to yell," he said, somewhat obviously. "Do you mind getting offa me?"

The interloper blinked, then muttered a quick apology and climbed to his feet. Sora sat up slowly, stretching his legs to try and regain some feeling in them. "My calves are asleep," he said, sniffing noisily. "I hope you get sick."

"I didn't mean to end up here," the man said. To his credit, he sounded at least mildly chagrined. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Sora said. He rolled his shoulders, squinting up. "You were looking for someone?"

The not-burglar nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Yeah," he said, eyes distinctly not meeting Sora's own. "My older brother. Half-brother. Whatever. He moved here last year as a grad student for HBU. His name's Leon."

Sora frowned. "You mean Squall 'It's Leon, dumbass' Leonhart who lives on the tenth floor and spends every night keeping me awake with the noise him and Cloudster make as they single-handedly try to burn a hole into the floor?"

The man blinked, then let the corners of his lips lift in a smirk. "I'm Riku," he said in what was not so much a response as it was a complete non sequitur, outstretching a hand to help Sora to his feet. "And I think we're gonna get along."

Sora squinted down blearily at the proffered hand, and frowned. "I'm Sora," he said. "And I'm sick." He waddled over to the bed and collapsed down atop it, pulling the sheets over his head. As an afterthought, he stretched out a single arm and pointed it in the vague direction of the window. "Leon's on the floor above this one. I'd send you out the front door, but it only locks from the outside, and since I'm not giving you a key I'd have to get up. Come visit when I'm not drowning in my own snot. Begone."

There was silence for a moment before footsteps began echoing across the room. Unfortunately, they were coming closer, as opposed to farther.

"I said begone," Sora said, voice muffled by the covers and the phlegm slightly clogging his throat. "As in the opposite of come closer. Verb. Be _gone._"

The footsteps paused beside his bed, the mattress dipped with an added weight, and the bed sheets were eased slowly down, stopping as they reached his shoulders. Sora groaned and threw a fierce glare at the man kneeling beside his bed.

Riku was squatting there, an odd look lying opaque on his face. Amusement? No, that wasn't right. Confusion? Closer, but still not quite there. Maybe it was-

The strange expression morphed suddenly into a smirk, and Riku stood up, reaching out to fluff Sora's pillow and pull the covers tighter around the smaller boy's shoulders. His smirk widened into a grin at the expression of confusion that Sora could definitely feel pulling down his mouth, and he turned, waving a goodbye over his shoulder.

"I'll see you," he called brightly. "Next time you're not drowning in your own snot."

Sora lifted himself onto his elbows, turning just in time to watch Riku's right leg disappear out the window. He frowned.

"You do that," he muttered, flopping back down onto his bed and closing his eyes.

* * *

Three days later, Sora was running around his room, half-naked and completely healthy. His three best friends, of course, were not. An irritated Sora was a vengeful Sora, and Roxas, Kairi, and Axel could each attest to that.

None of that mattered at the moment, however. What mattered was that Demyx had scored three tickets to Ars freakin' Arcanum, live in concert not a half hour's drive away, and Sora had out-Struggled every single one of his friends, rivals, and acquaintances in order to secure the back-seat of Demyx's old pick-up as they drove to Radiant Garden in order to see the show. What did it matter if he was playing third-wheel as Demyx macked on his periwinkle-haired jerk of a boyfriend for the entirety of the ride to the large stadium in Radiant Garden? That wasn't the point. The point was that Demyx had tickets to see the awesomest band in the history of awesome bands, and Sora was going. Now, if he could only figure out how to work open the army of buttons on his new pants-

A head of silky-white hair popped inside his window, and one Riku Leonhart glared ocular fire at him.

"Sora Strife," he growled, wiping at a runny nose in disgust. "You're dead."

Sora yelped and threw his pants at the apparently disembodied head in a defensive gesture that, while brave, was ultimately rather futile, as Riku caught the pants mid-air, tossed them onto the floor, and hopped inside the younger boy's room, stalking angrily forward.

"Look at me!" he growled, waving a hand at his face. His eyes were leaking, his nose was a pretty Rudolph-red, and his voice was slightly more husky than it had sounded three days before.

Sora glanced at the window, calculating the exact speed and trajectory it would take him to run past Riku, leap from the window sill, and land safely in the pile of compost Marluxia from the eleventh floor had been lovingly tending for the past month. "I see no difference."

"No difference?!" Riku cried indignantly. "I'm dying!"

Sora shrugged, suppressing the rogue bit of sympathy struggling to well up in his heart. "Your own fault," he said. "You're the one who crawled in through my window, sat on top of me, and then tucked me in. And how do you know my last name, anyway? Did you ask Leon?" He huffed, thrusting his hands into his pockets. "Stalker."

Riku tackled him.

It was at precisely that moment when the door swung open and two heads peered in, one blond and the other an embarrassing shade of lavender.

"Sora," Demyx drawled, glancing around the messy room. "Are you ready to go?"

Which was about when they caught sight of Sora and Riku lying tangled on the floor.

Sora froze for ten long seconds. Then he began to squirm. "It's not what it looks like!"

Zexion raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" he asked. "Because it looked as if the two of you were wrestling."

"Definitely thought you were wrestling," Demyx nodded.

"I mean," Zexion continued, "I suppose that sexual intercourse might have been our fourth or fifth guess, but given the somewhat incestuous nature of this apartment complex's friendships, we would have assumed that if you were actually in a relationship with someone, everyone would have known."

Sora's mouth fell open. He tried to decided exactly what part of that to respond to first. But Demyx's mouth had begun curving up, and the sudden terror Sora felt at that expression shut him right up.

"Of course," Demyx said, grinning widely. "Even we make mistakes."

"We'd congratulate you," Zexion said, "but we're already running late."

"Oh," Sora said, renewing his struggles to worm himself out from under Riku's weight. "Sorry. Give me two minutes, I'm literally almost done."

Demyx gave him a look that would have been pitying if it weren't so full of horrible, vicious glee. "Sora," he said. "If you only need two minutes, I think you'd better stay here and practice."

"What," Sora said.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of!" Demyx continued. "Everyone is fast the first few times."

"What," Sora said.

"Just focus on upping your stamina," Demyx said. "We'll treat you to Ars next time they come around."

"WHAT," Sora said.

And with a final 'Good luck!' they were gone.

In his apartment, Sora slowly turned around to stare at a Riku who - to his credit - looked slightly abashed.

"Ars, huh?" Riku mumbled "Did he mean Ars Arcanum?"

Sora gaped.

"Ars Arcanum, as in the awesomest band in the history of awesome bands, whose concert has been sold out for six months?"

If one squinted and tilted their head to the right, they could see the room filling with black clouds of doom and gloom. Sora glared harder. Riku laughed abashedly, hacking slightly on phlegm.

"Ah. Sorry, then."

Sora nailed him in the eye.

"Shit," Riku cried, reeling back. "I didn't know that your friends were gonna walk in! It's not my fault!"

"It's totally your fault," Sora said. "You tumble into my apartment uninvited, tackle me from clear across the room, single-handedly lose me my ticket to the concert of Ars Arcanum, and you think it's not your fault?"

Riku groaned, rubbing at his eye. "I didn't do it on purpose. I needed a place to kip out for the night. My roommate's being a dick, and Leon would laugh and close the door in my face if I turned up looking like a koala, and I figured that you'd at least offer me a couch or something, since it is sorta your fault that I'm sick-"

Riku took one look at Sora's face and rephrased.

"-Though the blame falls almost entirely on me, of course."

"Of course," Sora muttered, threading an irritated hand through his hair. He sighed. "I can't believe you cost me my tickets to Ars."

Riku winced. Sora sighed again.

"All right," he said. "Take the bed."

Riku looked torn between triumph and wariness. "If you're gonna let me stay here, then I can sleep on the couch," he said. "I'm not going to take your bed."

"And I'm not gonna let you spread your pathogens around my apartment," Sora said. "I haven't disinfected the bed yet, but you're not getting your germs on a perfectly good couch."

Riku released a bark of laughter, but began walking towards the bed anyway. "You won't get sick," he said, flopping down onto the mattress and grabbing a pillow to fluff. "It takes a chain of five or six people for a cold virus to mutate enough to infect the original carrier."

Sora scoffed, but his lips twitched upwards in a small smile. "I don't know if I believe that," he said, walking to the closet and grabbing an extra blanket. He paused at the doorway, then turned to glance back at the occupant of his bed. Riku was lying there, looking back at him, eyes soft with some light the younger boy couldn't quite place, his hair spread. Smiling like that, Riku almost looked...

He almost looked...

He walked back, huffing lightly, grabbed a hold of the covers, and tucked them snuggly around the man lying in his bed, staring up at him with red-rimmed eyes, a runny nose, and a strange smirk-smile that made Sora grin back almost unconsciously.

"Good night, idiot," he said, swirling the pale hair beneath his hand in a gesture he would forever deny as being affectionate.

It was only once he'd stepped outside of his small bedroom and into his just-as-small living room that he heard Riku's quiet response. Two words, and then a third, echoing oh-so-faintly around the walls of the room.

'Good night.'

A pause.

'Beautiful.'

Sora slid onto his small, ratty couch, pulled the covers to his chin, and smiled.

* * *

Fast forward a few days, and Riku was yet again tumbling into Sora's apartment window.

"Hey," he said, climbing to his feet and dusting himself off. "Something smells good. What are you cooking?"

He was met with silence. Riku looked up.

Five unknown people stared at him with varying expressions of bother.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked.

"Shut up," Sora hissed from his spot at the kitchen table. He winced, and stood up. Riku blinked at him, then turned to stare at the group of five individuals sitting around the small table. Oh-on second thought, though, not all of them were unknown. In fact, those two looked strangely familiar.

"Whoa," Demyx said. "It's you."

Riku gamely did not answer with it's me.

"It's him," Zexion said anyway, because apparently he liked taking the easy way out. He turned to stare at Sora, who was tearing his napkin into tiny pieces. "Though I don't think you introduced us properly the last time we met." he murmured. "The two of you were too busy rolling around on the floor."

Two heads, one blond, the other red, snapped up. "What."

"Yeah," Riku said. "I'm gonna leave."

"Stop!"

The words were spoken by all six individuals around the kitchen table. Sora was the only one who actually came forward. He grinned widely, reaching out to thump Riku on the back. And then he leaned close enough that no one would be able to hear, and in a hissed undertone said, "If I have to be interrogated, you have to be interrogated." Then, in a louder voice, only three octaves higher than usual: "This is Riku. We are not having sex."

The blond sitting between two redheads (a smirking male one, and a pretty, smiling girl) glowered. Riku resisted the urge to take a running leap out the window.

"Riku," Sora said, voice wavering only slightly. "You've met Demyx and Zexion. That's Kairi over there. Wave, Kairi. The idiot grinning his head off over there is Axel. Actually, the two of you are such huge jerks I'm sure you'll get along." A pause. Riku thought he could hear a gulp. "And that's my half-brother. Roxas."

"Nice to meet you," Roxas said. "Why don't you sit down? We were having a lovely time. I'm sure it would be great if you joined us."

Roxas's voice was mostly pleasant. Riku didn't think he trusted it. He opened his mouth to say so. Sora slammed his sneakers down on Riku's toe.

"You heard him," Sora said. "Come on, Riku. Sit down."

Riku sat.

"So, Riku," Axel began brightly, shooting both Roxas (whose mild not-smile was definitely hiding an intent to kill) and Sora (Sora) a giant smirk. "How did you and Sora meet? He's mentioned a new friend in passing, but not often enough that I'd figure you were comfortable with falling into his window."

Sora flinched slightly and grabbed an extra plate, shoveling chicken and potatoes onto it.

"I was visiting my older cousin on the tenth floor," Riku said, accepting the plate Sora all-but-shoved into his hands. "But I lost track while climbing and accidentally fell into Sora's bedroom window."

A snort to his left. Riku's head swiveled to glare at Roxas. The kid was sitting quietly wearing an expression of supreme peace.

"Are you going to school at HBU?" Kairi asked, before Riku could start accusing family members of being dicks.

"Yeah," Riku answered, nodding. "Junior."

"And after?"

"Not sure," Riku said, "but maybe R.G."

"Sora wants to go to Radiant Garden for graduate school, too," Zexion said mildly.

"Well," Sora said in a bright voice. "I think this has been a very nice dinner. If you're all done-"

"I'd like some more peas, please," Roxas interrupted, with the bland expression of someone who was possibly contemplating assault. Or someone who just possessed a bland expression, but we all know how unlikely that was. "What're you majoring in?"

"Double majoring," Riku said. "Psychology and neuroscience."

"Oh," Roxas said. "You want to be a shrink?"

"A neuroscientist," Riku corrected, leaning back in his chair and taking very careful pains to not aggressively spear a pea. "The psychology's a hobby. I'll probably do my thesis on achluophobia, though."

"Yes," Roxas said. "I suppose there is a lot someone could say about fear of the dark. So, is this going to go anywhere?"

Riku's smile looked decidedly forced. "What is?"

"Your relationship with my brother," Roxas said. "Because someone once told me that a large percentage of the relationships that shrinks enter into end in failure. On account of all the psychoanalyzing."

"Well," Riku said, smile looking decidedly sharp. "I suppose it's a very good thing I'm not gonna be a psychologist, huh?"

"That didn't answer my question."

"Why?" Sora asked, staring at the floor in distress. "Why won't you swallow me?"

"I do hope you were directing that question to the ground, Sora," Zexion said idly, nabbing a dinner roll from Demyx's plate. "I doubt Roxas would like to hear anything regarding anybody swallowing you at the moment."

"I think Sora would be in a better position than me to answer that question."

"No," Sora said. "No I would not."

"If I'd wanted Sora's answer, I would have asked him," Roxas said. "Given that I didn't-"

"Alright," Zexion interrupted with a sigh, wiping at his mouth and climbing to his feet. "I think we've had quite enough. Let's go, Demyx." Demyx opened his mouth to protest. Zexion made a motion with his fingers that could have meant many things, but probably meant that Demyx would suffer consequences if he didn't agree. Demyx agreed. "And the rest of you," Zexion continued. "If you want a ride back, we're leaving right now. Otherwise you may walk."

Both Axel and Kairi opened their mouths to protest. But Roxas stood.

"Take care of yourself," he murmured, wrapping his arms around Sora and speaking into his ear. "And call me if you need anything."

Sora muttered something in the affirmative and squeezed the blond in farewell. And then, with two final glances (from Zexion and Roxas) and three identical grins (from the rest) in Riku's direction, they were gone.

Silence descended on the apartment. Riku, of course, didn't allow it to last long.

"So," he said. "Your brother's nice."

"The first time Demyx brought Zexion home," Sora said, "we ended the evening with Zexion trying to poison him. You got off lightly."

"Lightly," Riku repeated.

"He could have challenged you to a Struggle match," Sora said. "Which you would have lost. Horrendously, bitterly lost. Really, all he did was grill you a bit about your hypothetical and totally nonexistent designs upon my person. That was practically a stamp of approval."

Riku barked an honest laugh, and grinned to himself. "Whatever," he said, tugging a lock of hair out of his face. He took a step towards the window, then paused, turning back around. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Of course," Sora said with a grin. "Not like the dinner party from hell could ever stop you from bothering me. Every night. For hours."

Riku smiled and reached forward to ruffle Sora's hair. Sora resisted the urge to rub against that hand.

"Tomorrow, then," Riku said, and climbed back out the window.

* * *

Weeks later, Riku and Sora were lying on Sora's bed, while Riku tossed a blitzball high into the air and caught it. Sora sighed, lifting a foot into the air. "I'm bored."

Riku continued flipping the blitzball up. "What?"

"It's a Friday night," Sora said. "And there's nothing to do."

"I could think of a few things."

"Shut up," Sora said. "There's nothing on TV, I've played every game in the house, everyone's out partying, and I'm stuck here with you."

Riku snorted, turning on his side. "You're the one who decided to stay here with me."

"Because you showed up two hours ago and insisted that I keep you company," Sora said. "I don't know why you never hang out with your cousin."

"It's because everyone in that apartment enjoys a very healthy sex life," Riku said. "A sex life I'd rather not be privy to. Also, I like you."

Sora laughed, but his cheeks felt a little red and a warm, bubbly feeling welled up in his chest. "Yeah," he said. "I like you, too. But that's no excuse."

Riku shrugged. His own cheeks were sporting more color than they usually did. "I could entertain you."

"Like you'd be able to," Sora said.

Riku grinned. And then he pounced.

In the instant before Riku fell on him, Sora had time to release one single embarrassing squeak. And then Riku's legs were around his hips, and his hands slid under Sora's shirt, and-squirmed.

Sora guffawed, twisting under him and pushing at Riku's shoulders. "Riku!" he shrieked.

Riku laughed, grin as large as a cat's. He tickled a little harder. "Tell me I could entertain you."

Sora gurgled, laughing and writhing and incandescently happy. "Never! You're the most b-boring person I've ever-" The hands dug in a little further. Sora screeched. "All right! All right! I give."

"Tell me," Riku said.

"Y-you," Sora said, laughing fit to burst. "You could-"

But at just that moment Riku leaned in, just a fraction closer, and since there was no way Sora would actually concede, he swung his arms up and around Riku's shoulders and pulled him down.

Riku released a startled gasp and fell.

Their mouths met.

Riku's lips mashed against his, a soft, wet tongue slipping accidentally over his mouth. Sora froze, then placed his hands on the older boy's shoulders, pushing him gently off. Riku pulled back, a flush on his face.

"Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to…yeah."

Sora stared at him, the warmth in his face reaching levels that would probably make him combust. "No problem," he said. He sat up, carefully ignoring the way his voice had sounded just a little wobbly, and absentmindedly brushed his fingers across his lips. They were tingling. He grinned and leaned back against the wall, propping his legs atop Riku's lap. "So long as you warn me the next time you decide to smush me."

Something in Riku's eyes shifted. "And if I said I wanted to smush you right now?"

Sora chucked the blitzball at his head.

* * *

Spring:

Riku climbed into Sora's open window, waving a hand in greeting. "Hey," he said, tumbling inside. "What's up?"

Sora rolled his eyes and stepped into the legs of his jeans. "Knock before you come in."

"I come in through the open window, Sora," Riku said. "I don't exactly have anywhere to knock."

"Rap on the brick and ask me if I'm decent, then," Sora said. "You okay? You look like you've got a fever."

Riku rubbed at his slightly flushed cheeks. "I'm fine. Can I turn on the TV?"

Sora did up the last of his buttons, and said, "Just keep the volume low."

Sora plopped down onto a small chair, releasing a huff of breath. He reached across his overflowing desk and grabbed a tiny black case, withdrawing a pair of spectacles and setting them on his nose.

Riku had settled on the bed, the news on mute before him, but he looked up now. "I didn't know you used glasses."

Sora shrugged. "I don't," he said, grabbing a pencil from one of the desks' drawers and scribbling a strange combination of symbols, numbers, and letters on a page. "Not outside, anyway. But I'm, like, a hundred now. If I don't wear glasses I can't read a thing." He sighed, erasing a two and changing it to a sixty-nine. "Don't you ever study? How do you get any work done when you're here every night?"

"I like spending time with you."

"You'll regret it if you fail your classes," Sora said, paying very little attention to the pleased warmth curling in his chest.

"Nah," Riku said with a laugh. "I have all my classes before noon. Do you mind?"

"Mind what?"

"Me coming over?"

Sora frowned, tilting his head back. There was a broad smile on Riku's face, but…something about the way he'd said that last sentence had been a bit…

"I don't care," Sora said, shrugging and turning back to his homework. "It's better than being alone. I like you, so I guess it's all right if you come over. Every day."

The bed creaked, and hands came to rest on his shoulder and massage. "Of course."

"Smugness doesn't suit you," Sora said, his own lips beginning to pull up. "And move your right hand a bit to the left."

"Here?" Riku murmured. He leaned forward, his breath tickling the younger boy's ear.

"Yeah," Sora whispered, the sound releasing itself on a sigh. "Right there." He sighed, closing his eyes.

There was silence for a moment, and then Riku's hands reached up to remove the glasses from Sora's eyes. One hand moved to his neck, smoothing over the skin lightly. The other drew gentle circles around Sora's temple.

"You could do this," Sora said.

Riku hummed lightly, his hands dropping to Sora's shoulders. "Become a masseuse?"

"Yeah," Sora said. "I'd hire you. I'd keep you on retainer."

A laugh. "Waste of a degree."

"An _investment_ of a degree," Sora corrected. "If you hadn't come to this school, we'd have never met, and you'd have never realized that your future definitely lay in massagerie. Basically, putting it like that, your whole purpose in life up to this point was to meet me."

Riku didn't answer immediately; long enough that Sora began to nod off, and he no longer began trying to hold in his pleased sighs. Then, quietly: "Massagerie's not a word, goof."

"It is now," Sora said. "You're welcome."

The hands on his shoulder continued their careful, steady kneading. And then he said, "Have sex with me."

Sora froze.

"Huh," he said. "If it's not too much to ask, would you please mind repeating what you just said? I'm not sure I heard you correctly. To be honest, I could have sworn you just said-"

"I did," Riku said. "I want you."

Silence. More silence. And then Sora said, "WHAT."

Riku jerked. "What?"

"No," Sora said. "That's what I said. _What?_"

Riku had begun to look slightly cornered. "I didn't think it would be a surprise?"

"It's a surprise," Sora said. "It's a big surprise. This is me, and I am surprised!"

"Why?" Riku asked. "If you want to wait, that's fine, but why are you surprised that I'd ask when we've been building up to this for months?"

"No," Sora said. "We have not been building up to this for months. We haven't been building up to this at all? Excuse you?"

"I'm sorry!" Riku said, louder now (but whether out of anger or slight hysteria, Sora didn't know). "We can wait."

Sora blinked. "Wait? I don't want to wait! We're never having sex!"

Riku blinked right back at him. "N-never?"

Sora growled. "Never!" he shouted. He reached forward, grabbed Riku by the arm, opened the front door, and threw him out.

"And don't come back until you've decided to be celibate!" Sora yelled, slamming the door right in his face.

* * *

Riku showed up at his window the next day carrying a huge bouquet of pink flowers. Sora stared at him, face blank.

"Look," Riku said, voice breathy in his haste to get the words out. "I didn't mean it like that. I don't wanna fuck you. I mean, I do wanna fuck you, but it's not like I expect it of you, and I can wait."

"Riku."

"Or I can not wait?" Riku asked. "Like, if sex isn't something you're interested in at all? I don't want to pressure you. I mean, I'd still like to jerk off, and I guess I'd like it if you were there, but only if you'd be comfortable with it. If you wouldn't be comfortable with it, I can deal. I'll work around what you want, I swear."

"Riku."

Riku stopped.

"Riku," Sora said again. "Are you still talking about sex?"

"Technically," Riku said, "I'm talking about the absence of sex, and how I'd be all right with it if that's what you wanted. But yes."

"Ah," Sora said.

Riku had only enough time to raise an eyebrow in question before Sora slammed the window in his face.

"Riku," Sora yelled through the glass. "I hope you fall off the stairs and die!"

Riku would have answered, but he'd had to leap back a bit to avoid the window slamming onto his nose, and was therefore currently trying not to overbalance, fall off the stairs, and die.

* * *

The next day, Riku showed up with chocolates. Sora opened the box thoughtfully.

"They look delicious," Sora said.

"Yeah," Riku said. "I bought them at that little bistro on Shinra Boulevard. You should have seen the little old lady I had to clothesline in order to grab the box before she _urghah!_"

The 'urghah' was the sound one made when Sora Strife hurled a small chocolate directly into one's mouth with all the force of Lexaeus on methamphetamines, where it proceeded to lodge itself directly into one's windpipe.

"Sor-" Hack. Cough. Turn a beautiful shade of blue. "He…lp!"

Sora snorted. "I'm not doing the Heimlich on you," he growled. "Ask the little old lady you beat up at the bistro. Maybe she'll have mercy on your poor unfortunate soul."

With a final glower, he slammed the window in Riku's purpling face.

Then he opened it up to do the Heimlich on him, because even an angry Sora didn't actually want Riku to get hurt. But as soon as he was certain Riku would survive he slammed the window shut again, which he figured amounted to the same thing.

* * *

Riku came by again an hour later, this time bearing ten pastel-colored balloons.

"I'm sorry," Riku said, the words leaving in a rush. "I shouldn't have done it! I mean, to be fair, I only shoved her to the side, and I did it gently, so it wasn't my fault if she tripped over the ramen display and shattered her fibula-"

Sora grabbed his crown-shaped pendant, took the nearest balloon in one hand, and popped it. Six balloons had already fallen to the metal spikes of his crown before Riku trudged back down the stairs, shoulders slumped and his posture defeated.

Sora felt horrible for the space of an entire hour, until Riku showed up once more at his window with a giant stuffed moogle.

"Look," Riku said. He sounded more tired this time, and he was holding up the moogle with listless arms. "I'm sorry. About the old lady, about sex. About the fact that I told you to sleep with me, but I don't think I actually asked. Everything. I'm sorry."

Sora stared at him for a moment, face blank. Then he sighed.

"Come inside," he said, with a small, tentative smile. "I hate being mad."

The smile that swept across Riku's face was brilliant in its pure relief. Sora's throat went a little thick at the sight of it. He did his best not to think about that.

He stepped away from the window, collapsing onto the bed and scooting over while Riku climbed in after him and tentatively made his way forward. Riku sat beside him, moogle still held in his arms. Sora slid himself over and nestled his face against Riku's leg.

"You shouldn't have said it like that," he said.

Riku shifted, tangling a hand in Sora's hair. "I know. I'm sorry."

"It was super rude," Sora said.

"I know."

"I'm still pretty shocked about it, actually."

Riku laughed, almost as if it had been surprised out of him. "Yeah," he said. "I know."

Which was all Sora could have expected, so he only sighed, and settled down. "All right," he said. "Show me the moogle."

Riku grinned, tossing it over and laying down beside him. Sora pushed closer, then held the toy one-handed over his head. "S'cute."

"It's horrible," Riku said. "But I liked it." He nodded at it, fingers scratching idly at Sora's scalp. "Squeeze it."

Sora cocked his head to the side and did so. Immediately, the stuffed animal began vibrating in his arms.

_"L! Is for the way you look at me!"_

Sora blinked. Then he snorted. "It sings?"

_"O! Is for the only one I see!"_

"Badly," Riku answered, grinning. "But I like the song."

_"V! Is very, very extraordinary!"_

Sora's smile wider despite himself. "It's…pretty cool," he admitted. "Even though I don't get why it's vibrating."

_"E! Is even more than anyone that you adore can!"_

Riku flushed.

"No reason," he said. "None at all."

Sora paused. Then he turned onto his side. "Riku," he said. "Why's it vibrating?"

Riku laughed. It wasn't a very confident sound.

"Well," he began, stumbling over his words for the first time since Sora had met him. "I actually found him at, uh…you know that little shop on the corner of Land and Dragons?"

Sora froze. "Wait. You mean…_Paine's…Pleasures?_"

Riku hid a wince. "Mm. Yeah. That one."

"The sex shop."

Quite wisely, Riku removed his hand from Sora's hair.

"It's not like I go there regularly," Riku said. "But I was walking by and right there in the display window was a set of leather binds that matched your eyes perfectly, and-"

"Stop," Sora said. Riku's mouth closed with a clang.

"You…" Sora said, sitting up, "bought me a VibraMoogle."

"_I liked the song_," Riku said.

Ten seconds later, a vibrating moogle sailed out of the window and nailed a passerby in the head. Five seconds after that, a tall, handsome green-eyed boy was pushed out of a ninth story window, where he landed flat on his ass on the fire escape.

Riku obviously figured that three strikes were enough for a single 24 hour period, and didn't show up again that day.

* * *

Sora woke up the next afternoon with sunlight glaring into his eyes and feeling like Riku had snuck in during the night and pounded his gut with a sledgehammer. He glared at the window as if willing Riku to appear so he could push him off the fire escape in retaliation for the pain his stomach was in.

The window was locked. Riku wasn't there.

His stomach hurt. He probably needed something to eat.

Groaning, he walked towards the small kitchenette that doubled as a living and dining room, walking to the largest cabinet and removing a bowl of Lucky Charms. He'd just sat down and started absentmindedly fishing the marshmallows out of the cereal when someone knocked on his window.

There, lying taped against the glass pane, was a single folded slip of paper. From this distance, he could vague make out his name sprawled across the sheet, but whatever other words it bore were indistinguishable. Sora frowned, rubbing at his aching neck.

"I'm gonna ignore it," he said loudly into the empty room. "Riku's a jerk, and I feel no compulsion to tear myself away from my Lucky Charms to read whatever apology he decided to give."

That being said, he began sorting the hearts, stars and horseshoes away from the clovers and blue moons. Ten seconds later, he realized that he was mixing the stars with the clovers, and tore his gaze away from where it had strayed to the window.

"I don't want to read it," he muttered, shoving an entire handful of hearts into his mouth. "I don't."

There was a small pause, and then Sora groaned and stood up, crunching angrily at the pink marshmallows in his mouth. He walked towards the window (a little more quickly than was strictly necessary) and grabbed the note.

_I'm sorry,_ it said.

Sora stared at it for a moment, then frowned. He leaned out of the window and looked down at the fire escape and the street beyond it. Riku was gone.

He slumped back to the kitchen table and flopped onto his seat, dropping his head onto the table. This was the problem with allowing strangers access into your home by way of fire escape-they ended up thinking they could take liberties, and then before you knew it your (best) friend was making advances and buying you VibraMoogles and responding to your well-warranted indignation with half-hearted notes of apology, and the worst thing about it was that you were the one left feeling as if you'd done something wrong.

Sighing softly, he lifted his head to stare at the window.

Someone knocked on the door.

Sora's head shot up, and he was out of his seat before the person had a chance to knock a second time. "Yeah?" he shouted, smoothing his pajama pants as he sprinted to the door. "Who is it?"

There was a slight pause, and Sora could barely make out a sigh from the other side of the entrance. "Sora?" a fluid, deep voice called softly. Riku's voice. "It's me. Can you let me in?"

Sora leaned up onto his tiptoes and peered through the peephole, just to make sure. He was met with green eyes and white hair and Riku's face, bowed slightly. He sighed, and thumped his head against the door.

"No," he said. "I don't think I really should."

There was another pause, and then a rap sounded across the door in a sharp staccato. "Sora," Riku said, his voice both loud and soft in a shifting paradox that warped plaintively across the wood planks of the entranceway. "Please open the door."

The muscles in Sora's lower back all tensed, and he sighed, bowing his head. "Alright," he muttered, then repeated the word louder for Riku's benefit. He brushed an uneasy hand through his hair, unbolted the door, and locked it.

"Thank you," Riku said, awkwardly taking a few steps into the room. He stood there in the center of the apartment, his back to Sora, for an entire minute before he turned around to face him.

Sora whistled. "Dude," he said. "You look terrible."

Riku barked an unsteady laugh and reached a hand up in an attempt to smooth his unkempt hair. "Nice to know I look even more like an idiot in front of you than I did yesterday."

Sora hid a wince and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I didn't mean it like that," he said. "And it's not like I should be apologizing to you anyway."

Another silence, and then Riku sighed and swept a hand through his somewhat mussed hair. "I'm sorry, okay?" he muttered. "Alright? I didn't do it on purpose. The…the little old lady, and the moogle, and the…the proposition. I'm sorry."

Sora frowned. "You beat up an old lady to buy me chocolate. You bought me a vibrating Moogle. You demanded that I have sex with you."

"I didn't want it to be a demand," Riku said. "I thought you'd want to, too."

Sora snorted. "Why? Because we were bored, and you figured we might as well screw?"

Riku's eyes narrowed for the first time since he'd shown up. "You know that's not what I meant."

"I don't care!" Sora shouted, drawing a leg back and kicking Riku in the shin. Ignoring the older boy's surprised yelp, he continued doggedly forward. "You're supposed to be my friend, and then all of a sudden you stop treating me like one and start acting like I'm some piece of-"

"I couldn't help it, you dimwitted punk, you were just sitting there and looking like a-"

"-think I'm gonna let you bang me like a-"

"-and it's been months, and you never want to do anything-"

"-well I hope you _get_ your lemmings and that they maul off your-"

Riku released an almighty yell and flung his arms up. "I love you!" he shouted. "Of course I want to have sex! I'm your boyfriend!"

Sora froze.

"My what," he said.

"Your boyfriend," Riku shouted.

Sora thought about that.

"Um," Sora said after some consideration. "No."

Riku also froze.

"Yes, we are," Riku said. "We've been dating for three months."

"Um," Sora said again. "Noooo."

"Yes, we have," Riku said, sounding vaguely desperate now. "Since that night in your room when I kissed you. I…" he shook his head. "You didn't know we were dating?!"

Sora winced. "I don't think it actually counts as dating if one party doesn't know they're dating?"

"I kissed you!"

"I thought you slipped!"

"I had my tongue in your mouth!"

"I thought _that_ slipped!"

Riku stared down at him, completely nonplussed. "So," he said. "We haven't been going out for three months. The longest relationship I've ever had, with the boy I love more than anything, does not, in fact, exist. That's what you're telling me."

"Well," Sora said, somewhat reasonably. "You didn't actually ask."

Riku blinked, face perfectly blank. "Oh," he murmured. He sat down on the edge of the couch, burying his head in his hands. "Oh."

Sora sat beside him tentatively, turning to stare at the older boy with a mixture of incredulity and dawning realization. "What did you think was going on?"

Riku groaned. "At first I thought maybe you just weren't interested in sex," he said, voice muffled by his hands. "Which, for the record, would have been fine. And when I figured out I was wrong, I thought maybe you just wanted to take it slow."

Sora thought about that. "So…when you asked to have sex with me, it's because you thought we were going out."

Riku nodded. "Yeah."

Sora bit his lip, rubbing at his temple with a forefinger. "And…you bought that Moogle for me, because you thought we could...use it later."

Another nod. "Pretty much."

Sora blinked, then leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "And…you…love me."

There was a pause that seemed to stretch for an eternity, before Riku sighed, the sound muffled by his hands. "Of course. Did I ever act like I didn't?"

Sora opened his mouth to respond, then closed it with a _clack_. "Huh," he muttered to himself. "Now that you mention it…"

A snort. "Yeah."

Sora bit his lip and turned to stare out the window. "So," he said, eyes gazing blankly outside the glass. "Those visits…and the teasing…and the coming over for dinner…and the time you held my hand in the movie theatre because you said you didn't like horror…and the time you bent down toward me right as Roxas walked in and he started yelling at you…and the time you spent, like, an hour playing with my hair…" He frowned, raising a hand to his chin. "That was all your version of dating."

"I…" Riku paused, licking at chapped lips. "I thought I was being obvious."

Sora laughed then, throwing an arm over his eyes. "You were, huh?" he said. "You held my hand."

"I don't actually like horror," Riku muttered. He sighed, removing a hand from his eyes and tangling it with his hair.

"What do you want me to do, Sora?" he asked quietly. "Do you want me to leave? I will. If that's what you want from me, I won't bother you again."

Sora's head swiveled towards him rapidly. "Of course not!" he cried. "You're my best friend."

"I am," Riku said. "And I can be just that. I won't push you. I promise I never will."

"I know," Sora said honestly, and frowned. He sighed, and fell back on the cushions, tilting his head to stare up at the boy sitting on the corner of the couch. "You really do love me?"

Riku turned toward the window. "Of course I do," he said. "Think I started falling on day one."

"Oh," Sora said thoughtfully.

And then he leaned forward and kissed him.

When he pulled back, Sora was smiling, and Riku was staring at him, eyes wide and cheeks a brilliant red.

"Well, that's good," Sora said, the corner of his eyes slightly crinkled. "Because, y'know, the biggest reason I got so upset with you when you asked to have sex with me was because you were my friend. I'm not good at casual relationships. I always end up falling pretty hard. So I didn't like the thought of you propositioning me out of no where when I knew that if we did end up falling into bed together, you were just gonna want a friend to have sex with and I was mostly just gonna want love."

Riku blinked. "Love," he said.

Sora rolled his eyes and leaned forward, brushing his nose against Riku's. "I like you a lot," he said. "I think I made that pretty obvious, too."

Riku sat stock still, blinking rapidly. "You…like me," he said, voice perfectly blank. "A lot."

"That's what I said," Sora said, chest bubbling happily. "I like you, love you, have dreams of hot, kinky sex with you, complete with VibraMoogles and all. I could go on, but I feel that won't be conducive to a proper discussion, so- Oi! Riku! Put me down!"

"You just told me you wanted sex. Let's go."

"I didn't mean now," Sora said, kicking Riku lightly mostly for the way Riku readjusted his grip on him and then spanked him on the bottom. "I don't have lube!"

"That's what blowjobs are for," Riku said happily. "And if you really want it, I will find an alternative."

"You're going to be incorrigible," Sora said in awe. "You're never gonna let me out of bed."

"For lack of a better word, and unless you have any protests," Riku said, "nope."

Sora thought about that. Riku slid a hand up his shirt.

"Nope," Sora said immediately. "No protests at all."

* * *

No one heard from them for a straight week.

But the neighbors bought earplugs.


End file.
